from Katie Strang of ESPN,
The Nashville Predators' Pekka Rinne and the Montreal Canadiens' Carey Price are holding court as the elite goaltenders in their respective conferences, though one could make the argument that latecomers like Devan Dubnyk of the Minnesota Wild and rookie sensation Andrew Hammond of the Ottawa Senators are stealing the second-half spotlight from the aforementioned Vezina Trophy front-runners.
But how about a pair of underrated goalies? The St. Louis Blues' Brian Elliott and the Pittsburgh Penguins' Marc-Andre Fleury won't square off when their teams meet Tuesday night, but each plays behind one of the most talented, dynamic teams in the league, and their value should not be overlooked just because of the star power that surrounds them.
Despite a knee injury sustained in November that sidelined Elliott for over a month, the 29-year-old has delivered a strong season thus far. He ranks fifth in the league with a 2.16 goals-against average and has posted a 24-12-3 record with a .921 save percentage. And though he was yanked in a loss to Minnesota over the weekend, Blues goaltending coach Jim Corsi said it was due mostly to uncanny deflections for which Elliott deserved little blame.
"It's unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it," Corsi said. "Numerically it looks like, ugh, but if you watch the game all [four] pucks were deflected, either by us or by them or by both."
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